Former Pomona caseworker alleges fake IDs, overnight releases and sibling separation at a 2021 HHS site.
Republican California gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton released anonymous testimony at a Pomona news conference Monday from a former caseworker who alleged migrant children were transferred to poorly vetted sponsors, separated from siblings and moved from the Fairplex emergency intake site overnight, making Democratic opponent Xavier Becerra’s HHS record a focus of their November race.
“We were constantly getting information that was false. And we were supposed to go with it,” the woman said in the first of Hilton’s “Becerra Tapes” videos.
Hilton’s campaign said the unidentified woman worked at the Fairplex for six months in 2021. She alleged that caseworkers accepted IDs containing selfie photographs and fraudulent birth certificates and contacted sponsors by telephone or WhatsApp, sometimes reaching adults who could not name the children they expected to receive.
“We still have no proof that the child went to that address,” she said.
Across four interviews addressing sponsor vetting, sibling separation, sexual misconduct and alleged sex trafficking, the woman said children were awakened around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and taken away by unknown drivers. She also described a 5-year-old identified as “Grace” who was separated from her 7-year-old sister.
“I asked where her sister was and nobody could give me an answer, I was heartbroken,” she said in a Hilton campaign post.
Hilton released another installment Tuesday alleging that children reporting rape or abuse could be overheard by others inside the facility. The woman also alleged that employees who reported sexual harassment were fired.
“There was no confidentiality between the minor and the case manager. If these children were being harmed … they couldn’t say anything,” she said in the video.
Hilton said Becerra “lost” 319,000 children and that 140,000 remained missing. The 319,000 figure appears to derive from an August 2024 DHS inspector general report identifying approximately 291,000 children who had not received immigration-court notices and 32,000 who missed hearings. Those findings documented ICE tracking failures, not confirmed physical disappearances.
An updated March 2025 audit found more than 31,000 release addresses were blank, undeliverable or incomplete, 233,000 children had not been served court notices and 43,000 missed scheduled hearings. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin separately said in June that authorities had located 146,000 children and characterized approximately 300,000 as still unaccounted for.
An independent HHS inspector general review of early 2021 cases found 16% lacked documentation that all required sponsor checks occurred, 35% contained identification legibility concerns and 22% did not receive timely follow-up calls.
Becerra’s former HHS public affairs chief, Jeff Nesbitt, said the agency inherited a dysfunctional system and that its legal responsibility ended after children were released to vetted sponsors.
“Secretary Becerra inherited a disorganized, chaotic mess from President Trump’s first term,” Nesbitt said. “He and his HHS team re-built the sponsorship and vetting network from the ground up during the Biden administration.”
